The Parish Council of Ashton Hayes in Cheshire voted in November 2005 to try to become England's first carbon neutral village. This grass roots project has grown rapidly in its first year and has engaged a large proportion of village residents. The project has produced a number of impacts on the community and the wider region and these are being evaluated in terms of their environmental, economic and social dimensions. This paper describes the process of project development and implementation and draws some general conclusions from this experience before going on to consider some of the findings of the initial evaluation of the project. We conclude by suggesting that Ashton Hayes provides an interesting case study of a community-led attempt to bring sustainable development into the mainstream and that the challenge remains, as with many community-led initiatives, of how to translate the considerable early momentum of the project into sustainable forms of participation and behaviour.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the extent and type of extra‐curricular ESD‐related practice in UK universities and to record opinions about the utility of such work.Design/methodology/approachA postal questionnaire survey of all UK universities was undertaken in 2006. Over half (51 per cent) of the UK's 140 universities with degree‐awarding powers responded.FindingsExtra‐curricular ESD‐related interventions were found to be widespread and in 31 per cent of cases were the primary approach to ESD. Respondent opinions highlight a paradox whereby the voluntary nature of extra‐curricular interventions can both extend and limit the reach of ESD.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey approach gathers impressions of UK practice at one point in time, only. Further case study research to look at the impact of such practice is now under way.Practical implicationsIn the UK, much recent work to support ESD has focused on efforts to support curriculum change. The paper suggests that attention should also be directed at the extra‐curricular sphere in parallel.Originality/valueThis paper partly fills a gap in the literature, there being little empirical enquiry into extra‐curricular ESD in higher education.
Over the last 15 years there have been dramatic shifts in the consensus over how best to cope with natural hazards in economically developing regions such as South America. One very positive outcome of the United Nations sponsored International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR 1990–2000) has been that there is now greater interchange between the work of earth scientists examining the processes and mechanics of hazard occurrence and impact, and social scientists exploring the causes of human vulnerability to hazard – and thereby disaster. This paper traces the development of this new understanding with reference to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in Peru, one of the most hazardous countries in South America. Particular focus is placed on the excellent progress currently being made by scientists in better understanding the physical dimensions of natural hazard exposure, and the ground‐breaking work by social scientists in promoting new approaches to understanding and mitigating human vulnerability to disaster. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need to build on this research to produce more inclusive, incultured and unified strategies of disaster mitigation at the local, national and international levels.
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